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Consultations show support for repealed Ontario sex-ed curriculum

By Shawn JeffordsThe Canadian PressPaola Loriggio

Mon., Dec. 17, 2018

An overwhelming majority of those who weighed in on Ontario’s sex education on the first day of public consultations opposed Premier Doug Ford’s repeal of a modernized curriculum introduced by the previous Liberal government.

Respondents identifying themselves as students, parents and social workers flooded the ForTheParents.ca website with messages hours after it opened in late August, following weeks of controversy over the fate of the curriculum.

Students at Western Technical Commercial School rally on their lawn in Toronto on September 21, 2018. Roughly 1,600 submissions obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom of information request show the vast majority of repondents to the first day of public consultations called for the modernized 2015 curriculum to be reinstated. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star)

Roughly 1,600 submissions obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom of information request show the vast majority called for the modernized 2015 curriculum to be reinstated. About two dozen messages spoke in favour of the Progressive Conservative government’s decision to repeal the document and temporarily replace it with one based on the 1998 curriculum.

“With the changes you have made to the curriculum you are putting children at risk. Not all parents are comfortable teaching their children the proper anatomical names and body safety but this is crucial,” wrote one person who said they were a parent and a child protection worker for the Children’s Aid Society.

Another person noted their child attends an elementary school that has a trans student and worried about children not receiving lessons on acceptance.

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“They will lack understanding and acceptance of all people regardless of sexual orientation. Please do not allow this to happen,” they wrote.

“Teach the new curriculum,” another submission read. “My tax dollars funded the research to come up with it and it’s not horribly out of date like the one from the 90s. Any teacher that teaches from the old curriculum is a liability towards the safety of our community.”

The government launched the submissions website in August after Ford pledged to revoke the modernized curriculum established under his predecessors and conduct what he called the largest consultations in the province’s history to create a new lesson plan.

Just days before the start of the school year, the government said it had drafted a lesson plan to address those criticisms. Experts said, however, that the lesson plan contains only passing mention of modern concepts such as the internet and cellphones and largely reverts to the vague language and broad topic outlines used in the 1998 curriculum.

The 2015 curriculum touched on issues such as online bullying and sexting, but opponents, especially social conservatives, objected to parts addressing same-sex relationships, gender identity and masturbation.

Many of the respondents to the online consultation, whose identities have been withheld, questioned the expense and necessity of the submissions website after the previous Liberal government spent months consulting parents and experts to create their lesson plan.

Some singled out Ford, accusing him of promising changes to appease social conservatives within the party’s base.

“Please don’t turn back time,” one wrote. “Our kids deserve better — they need to learn consent, diversity, how to navigate social media. This is bullying the majority to satisfy a religious minority. It’s not OK to harm our kids for political gain.”

Dozens of respondents used the forum to mock the Ford government and the consultation process itself, which the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario (ETFO) had dubbed a “snitch line” that encouraged parents to report teachers who refused to teach the 1998 curriculum.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and ETFO filed court documents on Monday in support of their legal challenge against the repeal of the modernized curriculum.

“Sexual health education today is based on a document created prior to the advent of social media, same-sex marriage, and human rights protections for gender identity, to say nothing of contemporary understandings of consent,” reads a factum filed by the ETFO.

The CCLA factum notes “removing references to sexual orientation, gender identity, and same-sex relationships from the curriculum … has a disproportionately negative impact on LGBTQ+ individuals and members of families with queer-identified parents” and perpetuates the “disadvantage and prejudice that those individuals have historically suffered.”

The province will file its factum in early January and the matter will be heard in Divisional Court on Jan. 9 and 10.

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